Northland weather: Cold temperatures set to last over the weekend

There's only been one frost in Northland so far this winter - and it was last week, despite recent days feeling very cold.

Northlanders shivering over the past few nights may be surprised to find out we haven't had the coldest temperatures of the year this week.

MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said Kaitaia had overnight lows of 8.2C on Tuesday/Wednesday and 9.3C overnight Wednesday/Thursday.

At the same time Whangārei had overnight lows of 8.2C Tuesday/Wednesday and 9.2C overnight Wednesday/Thursday.

McInnes said with the temperatures following several chilly days and with the presence of rain, it may have felt it was actually much colder.

But, he said, it was much colder overnight last Thursday/Friday and Friday/Saturday, when it was down to 4C in Whangārei and Kaitaia.

On Friday morning several Whangārei folk reported ice on their windscreens that needed to be scraped off before they could leave home.

''So those have been your coldest days of the year so far, but [the past two nights] may have felt colder for people. After several days of low temperatures and rain, the damp air makes it harder to heat a place up so it may feel colder indoors than it actually is,'' McInnes said.

And the overnight lows could get down to 5C or 6C across Northland over the next few nights, before things warm up a bit from Monday.

''There's a southerly ridge coming up over the country, which will give things a second go, so it will be down to overnight lows of 5C or 6C . The ridge will spread over Auckland and Northland from Monday when things will be a little bit warmer again.

''But it is winter though so you should expect a bit of cold weather, even though Northland doesn't get as cold as the rest of the country at this time of year.''

McInnes said daytime highs should be around 15C to 17C over coming days, which are fairly warm daytime temperatures for the time of year.

And while there has been a fair amount of rain across Northland in recent days, it's not enough to lift Northland's drought.